Let's not forget that two seasons ago, they took a 2-0 lead in Houston and still lost the series. And even WORSE... In 2005, the Rockets won Games 1 AND 2 in DALLAS and they STILL lost the series. In fact, they ended up losing Game 7 by FORTY POINTS!!! (And Yao scored 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in that game!) http://www.nba.com/games/20050507/HOUDAL/recap.html We're dealing with proven losers here, folks. We can beat these guys. Go Blazers
That was one of the series that was cheated by fucking Donaghy. There were soooo many bad calls consistently throughtout the series.
The point is..... it's possible to recover from losing a home game in the playoffs. You can lose even two and still bounce back to rout the guys in Game 7. There's hope.
Utah have match-up problems for Houston by having Memo and Boozer, while Houston is the match-up problem for Portland. Totally different story, and now Houston are rid of the road block formerly known as T-Mac.
Different teams completely. The first round virgin, T-Mac, isn't there to fuck it up for Hou. They play better without him. Add Artest, Brooks/Lowry at PG instead of Rafer, a much improved Scola (most underrated player in the league IMO), Von Wafer as a decent role player off the bench. They're a hell of a defensive team with 3 legit stoppers in Artest, Battier, and Lowry (Dikembe can still play too BTW). They rebound very well. Their offense is better than in the past. Their depth is quite good. They're just a very solid team. It doesn't surprise me one ounce to see them kick an inexperienced Portland team's ass on their home floor. They're better at PG, better at SF, equal at PF (I'll get shit for that but IMO it's true and thus far Scola has been better), better at C. They have a better bench. They play better defense. Por was the best rebounding team in differential I believe but I wouldn't be surprised if Hou beat them on the glass in most games this series. Roy is great but hes gotta deal with Artest and Battier all damn night. Still had a nice game tonight but where does everything else come from if he can't be normal BRoy?
Lets look at the roster of that team four years ago. Yao Ming - ONLY PLAYER LEFT Ryan Bowen - out of NBA SheMac - Out of NBA David Wesley - Out of NBA Bob Sura - Out of NBA Mike James - Out of NBA Juwan Howard - injured/scrub in Charlotte Jon Barry -Out of NBA Moochie Norris - Out of NBA Clarence Weatherspoon - Out of NBA Scott Padgett- Out of NBA Vin Baker -Out of NBA Dikembe Mutombo -SECOND PLAYER STILL ON ROCKETS Jeff Van Gundy - Out of NBA -------- Yao Scola Battier Ron Brooks Von Landry Lowry Deke Hayes Barry Rick Adelman
I love when people try to act like they know. This series along with game 6 of the 2002 WCF put a man in jail for many years to come.
Um no. Blazers have the best bench in the league. Scored 72 points the other night. Just had a bad game tonight.
My point is that a series can change. A team can go up 2-0 (even on the road) and still lose the series.
Ofcourse, but damn - the title was uncalled for! Especially after the beating they put down, give em some respect and hope your team plays better next game.
Game 5, in Dallas, there was a horrible call late in the game that could have cost us the series. He was clearly standing out of bounds and knocked the ball away from Barry in the closing minutes of a tight game. But you're right -- game 7 was a choke job. Much worse than what the Blazers did in game 1 of this series, considering the stakes. The Blazers will bounce back and make this a series.
It's possible, but I don't recall that ever happening other than in that Dallas series. And as someone else pointed out, this is a very different team.
